She'd waited 14 years to stitch a second district championship into a taunting banner Gov. Mifflin had bought to celebrate its first girls track title in 1995.

What would another 45 minutes have mattered?

But Slafkovski, at the close of her 38th and final season as Mifflin's girls coach, simply failed to do something she expertly does at virtually every major meet:

The math.

"I figured Harrisburg had all these points," Slafkovski said. "So I left."

All of her athletes had already scattered from Day 2 of the District 3 Track and Field Championships, most of them hurrying home for prom night. Without a single gold medal or an entry in the 1600 relay - the meet's long, last event - Slafkovski called it a day.

She was literally halfway home when she got a phone call from athletic director Pat Tulley.

Seemed there was a large, unclaimed Class AAA team trophy sitting in the officials' tent at Seth Grove Stadium, and it belonged to Gov. Mifflin. Despite no individual titles and just 50 points, the fewest for a AAA champion in 22 years, the Mustangs were champions, edging Harrisburg by four.

"It's really neat," an excited Slafkovski said via cell phone shortly after learning about the Mustangs' championship. "Only I'm in the (school) van, and all the girls are out to dinner, out to prom.

"So there's nobody to call."

Mifflin's improbable championship capped a prolific Saturday for Berks girls, who totaled six golds, seven silvers, six bronze and 44 total medals during districts' second day. For the weekend, the girls brought 52 medals home.

Berks Christian senior sprinter Joy Santos, a raw talent who first tried track less than two years ago, wowed by winning three AA golds. Santos won the 100, 200 and 400 and was the lone girl in either class to win three titles.

Wilson sprinter Gabrielle Poore, Kutztown miler Emily Miller and the Kutztown 1600 relay team accounted for the other three golds.

Poore's last two springs have been building to this peak, and she reached it by winning her first 3-AAA championship with a personal- and Berks season-best 57.25 in the 400. The lanky senior breezed into the lead around the final turn, then held off West Perry's hard-charging Morgan Sheaffer over the final 50 meters.

Miller, a petite junior, backed up her top seed in the AA 1600 with a winning 5:26.74. For 31/2 laps she stuck to the outside shoulder of Boiling Springs' Lauren Lehman, then hit the gas.

"I tried making it (past Lehman) at 200 (meters to go)," Miller said, "but we wound up racing each other till the last 100."

At which point Miller had the swifter, and fresher, legs.

Kutztown's foursome of Laura Sohmer, Hannah Jeffery, Kristin Fitti-Hafer and Heather Geist gained the final gold for Berks girls with a four-lap run of 4:10.70 - though they had no idea of their time after the medal ceremony.

"We were too excited to look at the clock," Geist said.

Exeter senior Morgan Price, the new county record-holder in the 100 hurdles, settled for a silver in the AAA event Saturday. She also won bronze in the triple jump.

But the biggest surprise this side of Santos' big day was Mifflin's near-miracle title.

The Mustangs patched together their championship Saturday with no golds; two silvers (3200 relay; Nadia McKenna in the 300 hurdles); three bronze (400 relay; McKenna in the 100 hurdles; Ashley Williams in the 200); a fifth (Lindsay Topper in the 1600); and a seventh (Williams in the 100). Friday thrower Rena Heim gave them 10 giant points by taking a third in the discus and a fifth in the shot.

A week after Williams missed the Firing Meet with a sore hamstring and Mifflin lost the Berks crown by an excruciating point to Wilson, Slafkovski was back in the driver's seat (even as she learned of the title).

"What a difference a week makes," she said. "And what a difference a hamstring makes."

Just in time for her coaching retirement, Slafkovski can finally sew another season into that once-jinxed banner.